Smoking pipe



March 16, 1948.

E; .J. soNN SMOKING PIPE Filed Aug. 9, 1945 Patented Mar. 16, 1948 UNTTED STATES PATENT OFFICE v SMOKING PIPE Emanuel J. Sonn, Riverton, N. J.

Application August 9, 1945, Serial No. 609,846 8 Claims. (Cl. ISI- 225) .This invention relates to smoking pipes, particularly to the class wherein the bowl is shankless, the stem and the mouthpiece being either integral with or separate from one another. A1- though not restricted to cylindrical bowls that lend themselves to being turned with semi-skilled labor on the lathe, my invention will find, I believe, the greatest applicability thereto.

My invention contemplates a pipe wherein the bowl-adjacent end of the stem does not penetrate entirely thru the bowl wall and includes pipes wherein the stem end terminates, alternatively, inside of the bowl wall, at the outer surface thereof and slightly short of said outer surface.

Briefly described, the invention is characterized by the employment of a connecting plug, preferably of metal or of any other material that will not generate a disagreeable taste or smell when in contact with burning tobacco, the plug being provided with a major smoke passage communicating with the stem smoke passage and with at least one auxiliary smoke passage that is also in the plug. The expedient of a connecting plug between a shankless bowl and a stem is one long known to the art, and no claim therefor is made herein. However, the incorporation in the plug of an auxiliary smoke passage designed to prevent the blocking of the major smoke passage in the plug by a flake of tobacco is believed to be new and is the essential element in the instant invention.

Of a number of more or less equally practical 'plugs constituting embodiments of the principles of this invention, all of which can and will readily suggest themselves to persons skilled in the art, there are three species that I have selected, because they are simple and typical, as suitable subjects of this specication and the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a plan view of a smoking pipe with a cylindrical bowl wall, an integral combined mouthpiece and stem and a screwable connecting plugrof the rst of said three species.

Figure 2 is a side view of the same.

Figure 3 is an enlarged sectional View of the parts circumscribed and indicated by 3 -in Figure 2 and taken in the plane 3-3 in Figure 1.

Figure 4 is an end view of said plug as seen looking in the direction indicated by the arrow 4 in Figure 3.

Figure 5 is an enlarged view similar to that of Figure 3 but of the second of said species, the non-screwable retention of the plug and the stem being an added feature, which form of retention is optional in this and other views herein.

Figure 6 is an end view of said plug as seen looking in the direction indicated by the arrow 6 in Figure 5.

Figure 7 is a view similar to that of Figure 3 but incorporating an alternative relationship between the stem and the bowl wall, and showing additionally a certain other feature, which will be referred to.

Figure 8 is a view similar to that of Figures 4 and 6 but of the third of said species.

Figure 9 is a sectional view thereof as seen in the plane 9--9 in Figure 8.

Referring to Figures l, 2, 3 and 4, the bowl is indicated by Il, the integral combined mouthpiece and stem by I2 and the connecting plug by I3. The bottom wall of the bowl is indicated by IIA and the continuous wall, which in this embodiment is substantially cylindrical and is disposed symmetrically about the bowl axis BA, is indicated by IIB. Wall IIB is perforated to constitute, adjacent said bottom wall, the truncated-conically formed wall hole I4, tapering in a direction from the interior of the bowl outwardly, the hole axis, which in this embodiment is also the plug axis and the stem axis, being indicated by HA.

The mouthpiece end and the bowl-adjacent end of the stem I2 are respectively indicated by I2A and I2B. End I2B terminates at the outside surface of wall IIB.` Stem I2 is provided with the stem smoke passage I5 and the bowl-confronting countersunk stem hole I6, communicating with passage I5.

Plug I3 consists of the wall-held end I3A and of the stem-held end I3B. End I3A is tapered and dimensioned correspondingly to hole I4, whereby plug I3 may be inserted thru the bowl wall and partly into the interior of the bowl, hole I4 and plug I3 retaining one another frictionally, leaving end I3B outside of the bowl for mutual retention with stem I2B, both of them being correspondingly helically threaded and dimensioned for that purpose.

Plug I3 is provided with major smoke passage I1 and with oblique auxiliaryfsmoke passages I9, 20, 2| and 22 and with axial auxiliary smoke passage I8, coaxial with the hole axis HA. The diameters of said auxiliary passages are less than that of passage I1.

The bowl interior, defined by the inside surfaces of walls IIA and IIB, is indicated by 23. The bowl-interior-confronting part of end I3A has the form substantially of a flattened truncated cone, whose apical surface is indicated by 24 and whose sloping surface is indicated by 25. At surface 24, passage I8 opens and extends to passage I'I. At surface 25, passages I9, 20, 2| and 22 open and extend to passage I1 obliquely to hole axis HA. The interior-confronting end surface and the stem-confronting end surface of the plug are respectively indicated by 42 and 43. They are opposed to one another and respectively correspond to wall-held end I3A and stem-held end ISB.

cated by 29, and the bowl-confronting countersunk stem hole by 30. In distinction from the embodiment of Figures 3 and 4, countersunk hole 30 and stem-held end 26B are correspondingly tapered and dimensioned to permit 'frictional mutual engagement thereof. The bowl-interiorconfronting part or ultimate end of end 26A, indicated by 26C, is substantially cylindrical in form and extends appreciably into the bowl interior. By enlarging the hole in the bowl wall, namely, countersinking it adjoining the interior, the end 2SA can be made to terminate within the bowl wall, with the annular surface thereof spaced from the inside surface of the countersunk section of the hole. The annular surface and the end surface of part 26C are respectively indicated by 3| and 32. Plug 26 is provided with the major smoke passage 33, the axial auxiliary smoke passage 34, and the rectangular or transverse auxiliary smoke passages 35, 36, 31 and 38, the diameter of passage 33 exceeding those of said auxiliary passages, which open at said annular surface 32 and extend to major passage 33 rectangularly to hole axis HA. In this species, lt is to be noted that the bowl-adjacent end of the stem terminates short of the outside surface of the bowl.

Having reference to Figure 7, there is here illustrated an alternative relationship of the -stem end 39 and the wall of the bowl, in that end 33 penetrates partly into continuous wall 40, a thin In the case of Figures 1 to 7 inclusive, the diameters of the auxiliary smoke passages may be the same as that of the major smoke passage but I prefer that they be smaller for the reason already referred to herein by implication,

Y namely, lowering the possibility of all of the paswall section A intervening between said end and the interior of the bowl. The plug is indicated by 4I. To permit the more convenient thru-drilling of the major passage and yet to set up counter-blocking means therefor by a flake of tobacco or otherwise, a closure or stop or small y plug 55 is shown filling the interior-proximal end of the smoke passage, which is indicated by 5S.

Having reference to said third species, namely, the plug shown in Figures 8 and 9, the auxiliary smoke passages in this case consist of slots instead of holes. The plug, bowl and stem are respectively indicated by 44, and 4S. The interior of the bowl is indicated by 47. The intenor-confronting surface of the plug is indisages being blocked by a tobacco flake as a result I of a large flake lodging in the major smoke passage. Therefore, also in the case of the species shown in Figures 8 and 9, I recommend that the practice shown in the views be adopted, namely,

' constituting the smaller cross-sectional dimensionof each slot less than the diameter of the major smoke passage. Although I have shown four said slots, only one or any number other than four may be used in the design.

The material of the bowl may be costly briar root or inexpensive corncob or otherwise. This invention lends itself to economic manufacturing and purchasing by the consumer in that a single relatively costly and durable stem may be used in association with a plurality of corncob bowls for example, an appropriate selling unit being, for example, six corncob bowls and one handsome stem, which bowls are eventually replaced by other such bowls without having to buy another stem.

I claim:

1. A smoking pipe comprising a pipe bowl having a vertical wall provided with a perforation adjacent its bottom wall, said perforation having the form of a truncated cone which tapers from the interior to the exterior of the bowl, the axis of vsaid perforation extending at an angle to the bowl axis, a stem disposed entirely outside the interior surface of said bowl, and terminating adjacent said rperforation and provided with a smoke passage and a countersunk hole confronting the bowl and communicating with said smoke passage, a connecting plug consisting of a stemheld end and a bowl-held end, said perforation and said bowl-held end being correspondingly tapered, said plug being provided with end surfaces confronting the interior of the bowl and the countersunk hole in the stem, said plug being provided with a main smoke passage extending between said end surfaces and with at least one auxiliary smoke passage providing communicated by 48 and the major smoke passage therein by 49. Milled into the plug at end surface 48 are the four slots 58, 5l, 52 and 53, which may be said to extend from the edge of end surface 48 to passage 49 and to be longitudinally exposed to the interior of the bowl on said end surface 48.

Optionally, the passage 49 may be axially isolated from interior 41 by the removable closure or small plug or stop 54. An alternative way of effecting said axial isolation is by not thrudrilling the hole constituting passage 49, whereby a thin wall section of the plug itself constitutes said closure. I recommend the removable closing means shown because it lends itself to facile cleaning out of the major smoke passage by temporary removal of the small plug 54.

Since the connecting plug, in all forms of the invention, is preferably of metal, the exposure of an end thereof to the burning tobacco will have no effect on the odor or taste. The stem, which is often of hard rubber and occasionally of plastic, is isolated from the burning tobacco.

main smoke passage.

l 2. A smoking pipe as in claim l, the bowlconfronting part of said wall-held end of the plug having the form substantially of a flattened truncated cone, said auxiliary smoke passage opening at the sloping surface thereof and extending to said major smoke passage obliquely to said hole axis.

3. A smoking pipe as in claim l, said wall-held end of the plug having a substantially cylindrical form, said auxiliary smoke passage being endwise exposed thereto at the annular surface of said wall-held end and extending to said major smoke passage substantially rectangularly to said hole axis.

exposed to said interior on said interior-confronting end surface and extending from the edge thereof to said major smoke passage, said plug being provided with end-closing means axially isolating said major smoke passage from said interior.

7. A smoking pipe as in claim 1, said auxiliary smoke passage consisting of a slot longitudinally exposed to said interior on said interior-confronting end surface and extending from the edge thereof to said major smoke passage, said plug being provided with removable end-closing means axially isolating said major smoke pasn sage from said interior.

8. A smoking pipe as in claim 1, said auxiliary smoke passage consisting of a slot longitudinally exposed to said interior on said interior-confronting end surface and extending from the 6 edge thereof to said major smoke passage, the smaller cross-sectional dimension of said slot being less than any cross-sectional dimension of said maj or smoke passage.

EMANUEL J. SONN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 952,337 Kolf Mar. 15, 1919 1,185,661 Hawley June 6, 1916 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date Great Britain June 20, 1918 

